Happy Hallowe'en All

Hallowe'en isn't the BIG DEAL it is in North America but the shops are getting into it as they can see the cash flow thing happening. Guy Fawkes is the thing on the 5th November - Bonfire Night. Not to be stopped we are going out (J-Rock is a zombie, DB as himself - verrry scary, KT with witch hat) since we have heard that SOME people have candy to dish out. We know family and friends certainly will! In fact, we are going to end up at the Almonds to have baked potatoes, baked beans, sausage rolls and dessert! All good stuff to wash down the chocolate. I'm doing some mulled wine.... here's our contribution currently sitting on the kitchen table facing out the window!!!

London Again...

So we had some lunch in St. James' Park to sustain us for the rest of the day. And once fortified we passed by a curious bit of sculpture. Buckingham Palace was on the way but the Queen was not in - probably in Windsor with the Corgis for the weekend. The Guards were not dressed in their summer ceremonial but in their winter greys. We didn't mind! Some very ornate insignia could be found on the gates. The eye was our last stop and we had some pretty good views of London as you can see. The House of Parliament in its full glory. As we were leaving the Eye towards the train station we ran into a bunch o mimers. They were great. Some dressed head to toe in silver or gold. If you gave them a bit o money they would do something like wave or bow very slowly or make a funny noise. Really good. J-Rock enjoyed it - Only problem is we ran out of change so had to stand by while others anted (sp?) up!

More about London!

Just a short one as we are planning on heading up to the North for a few days. The kids are out of school this week so it is a good opportunity for us to do something. Fortunately for us we have our sporty Citroen again - You know, the one that turns into a skater! Whoosh! Go watch! We hope to get as far as Spurn...
So one of our first stops in London was Trafalgar Square. They have really cleaned everything up in the past few years. All the buildings and fountains and sculptures look very fresh and clean. And, NO pigeons! So some pictures in and around Trafalgar Square. Nelson's Column, Canada House and other assorted sites.
I am wondering why there is a Canadian Pacific building - Anyone up on their Canadian history?

The Punters Want More Fodder!

Ok, Ok Already. Well, we went to London yesterday, Canterbury on Friday (night), I ran 1.5 hours on Monday, my squeaky Blundstone needed fixing (Thursday), some trousers needed hemming (Thursday), I finished a 'square' on Wednesday and just got back from a bang-up roast dinner this afternoon...So here's proof of some of this.
London was great. Excellent weather. It was so busy with everyone - tourists, runners, Londoners, buses, cars, the lot! We have loads of pictures but the sites that stuck in my brain were: the clock on St. Margaret's Church, our flight on the London Eye, the gherkin, more spikes on St. Margaret's, the Guard's Museum and Horse Guard's Parade.
I'll post more pictures as the days go by so here are a few to start. Can anyone spot the gherkin? Does anyone even know what a gherkin is? We saw the gherkin from the Eye and also as we came into King's Cross Station. The sundial clock was pretty accurate. Located beside Westminister Cathedral on St. Margaret's Church. We saw some real horses in Horse Guard Parade - it is a kind of staging area for many of the horse parades and we saw the Life Guards of the Queen's Household Cavalry - horses are always black, their mounts in red. It's actually one of the most well-trained and senior regiments of the British Army.
We had been warned that there might be huge queues for the Eye but we found the line to move quickly and it only took 1 hour from start of line to end of 'flight'.
J-Rock's Grandad was a Grenadier Guard so the trip to the Guard's Museum was well worth it. We are going to get more info on his service record by writing the archivist and hopefully we can get some photos of him leading the Trooping of the Colour. (He was the one who yelled out the commands and twirled the baton...an RQMS - a prize if you know what THAT means!)

Happy Birthday Dr. Ofluf!

Have a great day Doctor - DB has promised to go down 't pub for you and have a jar of London Pride or the Green King! He says he doesn't mind...Enjoy your sauces!

A Day in the Life of J-Rock

Thought some of you out there might be interested in J-Rock's life on any given day.


On a school day he:

• wakes up
• puts on uniform - white shirt, blue sweatshirt, black shoes, grey trousers
• eats breakfast of toast & Marmite (and sometimes tea or milk)
• trots off to school at 8:30 in fear of being late (which he never is) - his class wins a teddy bear for the week if all students have good attendance
• schedule at school includes literacy, numeracy, geography, phys ed, clubs on Friday - (guitar and pottery), history (Tudors and Henry VIII at the moment) - QUIZ - what is this pattern about: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived?
• bottle of milk at break
• sometimes there's an event - last week there was a harvest festival at the church
• dinner = hot lunch - 2 choices of main course, fresh bread, milk, 'pudding', fruit, water, milk
• pick-up at 3:05
• trip to shop for some sweets
• home to do homework - yikes...
• trip to beach or walk along clifftop - sometimes end up at pub for lemonade and crisps
• games with Mum & Dad - Conkers, football
• TV time - currently LOVES Basil Brush - Booom Boom...
• hockey pool check - he's currently in the lead! or email to his friend I-Rock or Club Penguin
• dinner
• scrabble or TV show if anything on - lots of good nature shows - check out Autumn Watch - look for the swimming hare Paddy-Rock
• bedtime around 8:30 - storytime - Adventurous Five by Enid Blyton or Fire Wing

and so on and so forth!

Visiting North Kent - Whitstable, Rochester, Cliffe, Oare Marshes

Although, we visit southeast Kent whenever we come over we never seem to give North Kent a go. And, in fairness, it is a really interesting area. Lots of history of course but I always find the coastal towns have a certain je ne sais quoi. So, here are some pictures from our visit to Whitstable on Sunday after touring around Rochester. While there J-Rock had a 'pot' of mussels (already de-shelled) which were really nice but, er, came from 'somewhere in Europe'. Anyhow, these parts are famous for their oysters BUT most of the oysters aren't native - they come from Portugal and are farmed locally. But lots of so-called famous/and or wealthy people from London and environs are looking for property in this area - needless to say we saw no familiar faces.

I'm jumping ahead - Whitstable was our last town on our weekend adventure. Our first stop was the Oare Marshes RSPB reserve. We were blessed with great weather, a good packed lunch, chocolate and a 'flask' of tea. We saw a Little Stint and the Brits were keen on seeing the Long Billed Dowitcher. Also, lots of Golden Plovers, Dunlin, and Lapwing. DB also kept running into People He Knew and J-Rock kept wanting to move on. So J-Rock and I moved on and DB caught up with the People He Knew!

After Oare we went skating as below - the less said about that the better!

We slept in the Medway Youth Hostel in Gillingham - a converted Oast House. And took their comfy womfy family room. But first we de-stressed from the skating with a pint at the local pub - I had a half of Buckley's REVEREND JAMES! - It's worth the trip to Gillingham!

Next day we birded/hiked another RSPB reserve called Cliffe Pools. The little community there almost had an international airport thrust upon them and their marshes until a huge campaign was mounted against it. The airport never happened. For any of you into Dickens the area was the setting for Great Expectations - the church in town is supposed to be the meeting place of Pip and Magwitch.

We also visited Rochester as they were having a food and drink festival. The cathedral is free with donation and was well worth it (the donation that is!)...We celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada but over 'ere they have harvest festivals in all the churches. People bring in fruits of the harvest such as marrows, apples, pumpkins, cabbages, zucchinis and cans of food. All piled up at the front of the church to be given to those who need it.

We were fortunate enough to happen upon the start of the Sausage Hurling Contest - the event took place on the grounds of the castle (which we didn't enter as it required a £30 entrance fee!). The winner threw one sausage 128 feet! Talk about athletics. It provided a good break for us as we sat and ate our Black Jacks, Turkish Delight and crisps.
But, hey, what IS this spiky thing that we saw at the gates of the castle??? A device to foil muggers? A multi-marshmallow roaster? All ideas welcomed!

You Can Take a Girl Out of Canada...

...But You Can't Take Hockey Out of the Girl!

To start off here are my hockey pool picks. We are doing Enforcer, Goalie and Team and 7 players. Very sophisticated - and so far I'm losing to two 9 year olds!

• Cheechoo
• Alfredsson
• Iginla
• Malkin
• Sedin H
• Gionta
• Hemsky
• Shanahan B (enforcer)
• Kiprusof
• Ottawa

On the weekend we visited Gillingham. Home of the famous Ice Bowl. We thought we could have a good old skate around and get back our hockey legs. But, um, well, it's different over here. First, we had to rent skates. FIGURE SKATES. So, imagine J-Rock and I and DB trying desperately to skate with figure skates on very choppy ice (replete with sweet wrappers!) crowded with over-enthusiastic English people (see photos)! It was an experience that

unfortunately will not be repeated this trip around! Was pleased to see the Canada flag raised to the roof but that was about all. Poor J-Rock, he did want to have a good whiz around but it was not to be. And the person who kept everyone in line while on the ice was called the Ice Steward!

Happy Birthday Mum!

Me Mum turns 39 today so here's to her and I hope she has a very nice day indeed.